Jenna, from writerswrite.com:
Harry Bernstein Becomes an Author
96 year old Harry Bernstein decided to write his memoirs in his 90s, after his wife died. His memoir, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers (Random House) is receiving rave reviews: it tells the story of his childhoood in Northern England. Harry had an alcoholic father and was subjected to anti-Semitism every day of his childhood. But after moving to America and marrying the love of his life, his life was filled with happiness. Ruby, his wife of almost 70 years, died in 2003 and her death left a great hole in his life. So he sat down at the typewriter and began writing.
"I didn't know what the heck to do with myself. ... You know when you get into your 90s like I am, there's nowhere else to think except the past. There's no future to think about. There's very little present," says Bernstein, who gets around his New Jersey house slowly, with the aid of a cane, and is the sole survivor in his family.
"So you think of the past, particularly at nighttime when you're lying in bed. And it all came back. So I began to write, and I was occupied, and it was really the best therapy I could have had." Bernstein first sent the finished manuscript to New York publishers but, having no luck, he sent it to the London office of Random House. There the book sat for about a year until it came across the desk of editor Kate Elton, who described it as "unputdownable." "I think he's a most fantastic writer," Elton said. "He creates the characters of his family so vividly and tells such a moving story."
The book's title refers to the barrier that divides Bernstein's side of the street — the Jewish side — from the Christian side in his hometown of Stockport, near Manchester, a separation he likens to two enemy camps that have an uneasy truce. About the only thing that united the two sides of the street was poverty, with most people working in the mills on salaries that only allowed them to get by week to week.
"We understood we were not to involve ourselves with them, and they likewise with us. The Jewish boys and girls had their games on their side. They (the Christians) played their games on their side. It was two separate worlds," Bernstein says. In his book, he recalls a childhood often spent running from Christian kids intent on beating him up or drunken Gentile neighbors who would stand on the street, yelling, "Who killed Christ? Bloody Jews." The bias went both ways. Bernstein recalls that when his family walked by a church, they were instructed to spit as a way to show contempt.
*****
Bernstein cranks out his pages on a typewriter in his bedroom, saying that the computer nearby is too complicated for anything more than checking his e-mail. And at his age, he allows himself a certain latitude in the writing process, meaning that instead of worrying about deadlines he just writes until he doesn't feel like writing anymore. "I've been trained to finish something you start, don't leave anything undone," he says. "I just feel I'm not satisfied until I finish what I start. And I will not be satisfied until I start something new."
We just love this story -- he's 96 and he checks his email everyday. He's also working on his next book which has been bought by Ballantine. It really is never too late to start writing.
thinking, geez, now they're giving CATS book deals? 
